The Buffalo Soldiers were African American soldiers who served in the United States Army after the Civil War. They were the first African Americans to serve in a peacetime army. They mostly served in the Western territories of the United States where they escorted settlers and worked to protect and help railroad crews and cattle herders. They were organized into all-black regiments with white commanding officers.

The Buffalo soldiers also saw combat against the Native Americans and participated in nearly two hundred western battles. It was their brave and honorable conduct in these wars that earned them the name "Buffalo Soldiers" from the Native Americans. It was a name that stuck until the integration of the U.S. army. Later there were Buffalo soldier regiments in every armed conflict from the Spanish American War through World War II. The United States army was integrated by an executive order from Harry Truman in 1948 so that in the Korean War, African American soldiers fought alongside their white comrades.